is universal, because human speech does not differ with the
difference of human tongues. These three parts are: first,
nouns--the names of things; second, verbs--the names of events;
and, third, the partitives--or the words which express the
relations of things to events. Thus the most abstract of verbs,
"to be," refers to an event; for when a man says, "I am," he is
mentioning an event in the history of the universe which did not
occur till he existed.

This division, however, necessitates that the adjectives should
be regarded as nouns; and so they are classed in all Semitic
languages, as the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Syriac, etc. The
writers of the New Testament, therefore, could not write Greek
without continually falling into their native Hebrew idiom; so
that if the passages were translated literally, some modern
expositions would have to be much modified. Thus, "Who created
the worlds by the word of his power" means "Who created the
worlds by his powerful word." "The body of our humiliation" is
"our humiliating body." "Who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?" is "from this deadly body," as the context of the
passage clearly shows. In each case the second noun is the
adjective modifying the first.

Moreover, the most interesting deduction from this division of
the parts of speech is that the partitives are far the highest in
rank among words, because they express pure relations, which only
the royal mind of man can so distinctly perceive as to make words
for them. Thus, a dog can learn his own name, and understand the
verbs "go" and "come," especially with the imperative tone of his
master; but he could never understand the words "outgoing year"